Delaware's School Tax System: An 
Inquiry and Its Answer 

BY 

CHAS. A. WAGNER, A. M., Ph. D. 

Commissioner of Education 



Authorized to be printed and distributed by the State Board 
of Printing and by the State Board of Education 



Dover, Del., December, 1916 



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D, of D, 
MAR. 28 1917 



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I. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCHOOL TAX SYSTEM 



In three matters the local School Committee of each school dis- 
trict of the State is an independent sovereignty, namely, in making 
the School Assessment, in fixing the school tax rate, and in operating 
its school. The school Assessment is usually made by the Clerk of the 
School Committee, and is supposed to be made each year upon view 
of the property assessed. At the annual meeting in 'each school dis- 
trict the voters determine what sum of money shall be raised by 
taxation for the next school year; and then the school commissioners 
determine the tax rate. The assessor enters in the Assessment List 
the names of all voters and property owners of the school district, 
and assesses against each property owner, the 'clear rental value' of 
real estate, the value of his Personal Property and the value known 
as Capitation Tax Assessment against each voter. The law expressly 
requires that these Assessments of value shall be made upon view of 
the property, and may not be copied from the Assessment List for the 
Hundred (a political division of the County) within which the property 
is situate. This list of assessment or entry of values of property owned 
within the school district by the respective voters or owners, is called 
the School Tax Assessment List. They are not recorded except in 
the rare instances of a very careful School Committee or School Clerk. 
Often the only account of taxes levied, sums paid and of sums still 
owing, is kept on the Assessment List. After the district school 
account with the State Auditor is closed, these lists are generally laid 
away, lost and forgotten, and thereafter it becomes impossible to learn 
what amount of school taxes are levied, of the amount levied what 
amount was paid, who had paid and who had not paid school taxes, 
and who had been excused or exonerated from payment. 

Upon the total amount of values assessed for each of the three 
forms of property values specified for assessment, the School Com- 
mittee fixes the tax rate for the given year, after it has been decided 
whether only the $100.00 required by the school law to be raised 
locally in each district shall be raised, or whether a larger sum than 
$100.00 shall be raised by taxation. After the tax rate has been fixed 
for the year, each kind of property value must pay a school tax at the 
rate fixed on its assessed value, so that upon all kinds of property value 
the rate is uniform within that school district. In different school 
districts the tax rate varies just as much as the valuations vary. 

II. DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY TAX SYSTEM. 

At the last legislature Sussex County, by legislation, secured the 
establishment of a new County Tax System which is reported to be 
very satisfactory and yielding a much larger percentage of the taxes 
actually levied. In all the counties, however, there is an Assessment 
List. In the County Assessment List the voters and property owners 
are listed, and opposite each name entered on the list, is an entry of 

3 



the real estate and personal property owned, and of a Capitation Tax 
Assessment (or amount). The only difference between the County 
Assessment List and the School Assessment List is, that real estate is 
entered at 'real value' in the County Assessment instead of at its 
'rental value.' This difference results in making the total of values 
in the School Assessment List very much smaller than are the total 
values for exactly the same property and persons within the identi- 
cal area for the Coimty Assessment List. 

IIL COMPARATIVE SHOWING OF ASSESSMENT FOR 
SCHOOL TAX AND FOR COUNTY TAX PURPOSES. 





COUNTY ASSESSMENT 




SCHOOL DISTRICT ASSESSMENT 


Taxa- 


Real 


Live 


Capita 


Real 


Live 


Capita 


bles, 


Estate, 


Stock, 


Assess- *■ 


Estate, 


Stock, 


Assess- 


num- 


(real 


(Pers. 


ment. 


(rental 


(Pers. 


ment. 


bers 


value) 


Prop.) 




value) 


Prop.) 




substi- 








' 






tuted 














1 




$75.00 


$ .25 




$50.00 


$200.00 


2 


4,000.00 






550.00 


55.00B 




3 




75.00 


.25 




50.00 


200.00 


4 


4,500.00 


600.00 


.25 


450.00 


520.00 


200.00 


5 










lOO.OOB 




6 


2,490.00 


300.00A 


.25 


160.00 




200.00 


7 










IIO.OOB 




8 


400.00 






100.00 






9 


4,300.00 


425.00A 




400.00 






10 






.25 




450.00B 


200.00 


11 


625.00 


75.00 


.25 


100.00 


100.00 


200.00 


12 


3,375.00 


175.00 


.25 


400.00 


250.00 


200.00 


13 




400.00 






400.00 




14 


2,060.00 




.25 


200.00 




20.00 


15 


2,750.00 


125.00 


.25 


350.00 


100.00 


200.00 


16 






.25 




200.00B 


200.00 


17 




375.00 


.25 




500.00 


200.00 


18 






.25 




50.00B 


200.00 


19 


7,665.00 


150.00 


.25 


600.00 


400.00 


200.00 


20 




250.00 


.25 




100.00 


200.00 


21 




375.00 


.25 


200.00B 


300.00 


200.00 


22 






.25 






200.00 


23 


3,475.00 


250.00 


.25 


350.00 


400.00 


200.00 


24 


2,000.00 


150.00 


.25 


200.00 


200.00 


200.00 


25 


1,000.00 


75.00 


.25 


100.00 


100.00 


200.00 


26 


3,650.00 


325.00 




425.00 


375.00 




27 








60.00B 


400.00B 





Totals $40,290.00 $4,900.00 $4.75 $4,755.00 $5,100.00 $3,800.00 
Explanation : 

A, items included in County List but not in School District List. 

B, items included in School District List but not in County List. 

Herewith is shown the assessment of values for exactly the same 
persons or taxables in a school district in New Castle County, and in 
the County Assessment List for the Hundred within which the school 



district lies. The School Assessment List was secured from the 
School Clerk's list by Superintendent E. L. Cross, and the figures from 
the County Assessment List were secured by the Commissioner of 
Education from the Clerk of the Peace for New Castle County, and 
are the assessments of the same property for the same tax year. 

Note: — Think of the aggregate of differences if all the 400 
school districts Assessment Lists could be compared with the County 
Assessment Lists! What an argument for a revisioq of the State's 
tax system ! 

As noted below the table, each assessor failed to find or to record 
some of the values found by the other assessor. The County Asses- 
sor found taxable value for numbers 6 and 9 not entered by the School 
District Assessor. The School District Assessor found values for 
numbers 2, 5, 7, 10, 16, 18, 21, and twice for number 27. In the case 
of number 19, personal property which the County Assessor enters at 
$150.00, the School District Assessor enters at $400.00. However, 
it is not an argument to show the need of revision of our entire tax 
system that is here sought. A careful and close study of the table will 
show other discrepancies just as glaring. The striking difference 
between the two Assessment Lists, and the difference which in 
practice imposes all the hardship and injustice, lies in the differences 
of the totals of the lists. Note this difference, if we use the Capitation 
Values from the School District Assessment List, as we must do to 
institute a comparison, since the County Assessor entered no Capita- 
tion Value, but a specific sum or amount of tax to be paid by each 
voter. 

COUNTY TOTAL OF ASSESS- SCHOOL TOTAL OF ASSESS- 
MENT LIST : MENT LIST : 

Real Estate, real value $40,290.00 Real Estate, rental 

Personal Property ... . 4,900.00 value $4,755.00 

*Capitation values 3,800.00 Personal Property 5,100.00 

Capitation values 3,800.00 



Total Assessed Values . $48,990.00 Total Assessed Values . $13,655.00 
(*From School Assessment List). 

The County taxed for its purposes, $48,990.00, and the School 
District for its purposes, for the same persons and the same property 
within the same area, taxed $13,655.00. 

The School District used this total of $13,655.00 to make up the 
required school tax this year, which tax was $154.00 actually collected. 
The School tax rate thus became $1.33 on each $100.00 of assessed 
value. Had the total value of the County Assessment list been the 
basis for determining the tax rate, a rate of $0.32 on the $100.00 would 
have produced the necessary $154.00 of tax money for the schools. 



The difference in favor of thq tax payer when the tax rate is $0.32 on 
the $100.00 of valuation, as compared with a tax rate of $1.33 on the 
$100.00 of valuation, is certainly clear to any tax payer. Now it is 
just this difference in tax rate which follows necessarily from differences 
in total assessment, that works the hardship on the owners of the 
different kinds of property. The assessment of Personal Property is 
about the same for the same property in each Assessment list. That 
is, the total value of the assessed Personal Property is almost the same 
in the two lists. Consequentl)', a low tax rate is to the advantage of 
the Capitation assessment and of the Personal Property assessment, 
and a high tax rate is to the disadvantage of both these forms of 
values. That is, by assessing real estate at its rental value, the total 
School Tax Assessment is small (only $13,655.00), therefore the tax 
rate must be very high, therefore the tax on Personal Property and on 
Capitation Assessment must be very high. Therefore, under the 
present school tax system, the owners of Personal Property and 
taxables who pay only Capitation tax, PAY GROSSLY OUT OF 
PROPORTION TO THEIR JUST DUES UNDER AN EQUIT- 
ABLE TAX SYSTEM. This is the fact and condition which causes 
all the complaint about taxes and hardship of high taxes under the 
present system. If the County total of assessments had been used to 
levy school taxes, and if the school tax rate had been $0.32 on the 
$100.00 of value, the school tax for the owners of Personal Property 
and the taxables who pay only Capitation tax, would have been very 
light, because the rate is low. In fact, the Personal Property owners 
and the Capitation tax payers would have had to pay only one-fourth 
as much tax on these values. The other part of the tax would fall 
upon the owners of real estate in proportion to the. increase in the 
assessment of value of their real estate. The tax rate would still have 
been the same for each kind of value, but since the increase in the 
assessment was all due to increase of assessed value of real estate, 
that kind of value alone would have found itself paying increased 
school taxes. 

IV. UNFAIRNESS OF THE PRESENT SCHOOL TAX SYSTEM 

The simple and single purpose of this presentation is to secure in 
the school tax system that standard of fairness and equality which tax 
payers now have in the County tax system. That being the sole aim, 
charges of novelty and of revolutionary changes cannot be maintained 
against the proposal of change. In the county the assessment of real 
value of Real Estate has worked. In the city of Wilmington and in 
the towns of Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Laurel and Seaford, Real Estate 
is taxed at its real value for school taxes. Therefore, the idea is not 
new, therefore the plan is not revolutionary. The State legislature 
some years ago, when authorizing several school districts to raise 
money for the erection of new school houses, passed special acts 
authorizing these districts to assess real estate at its real value in these 



districts when raising the tax for building purposes. Here we have^a 
number of progressive communities, and the State legislature acknowl- 
edging and employing the principle, hence it must be sound and equit- 
able. In "An Act to authorize the School Committee of School 
District No. 130, in Kent County, to raise money for the purpose of 
building a new School House, "Chapter 83, of Vol. 18, page 138, Laws 
of Delaware, the following passage is found in Section 1, beginning in 
line 10: " Provided, and it is hereby made the duty of the said School 
Committee of said School District, in assessing the tax by this act 
authorized, so far as the same shall be assessed upon r'eal estate, to 
assess such real estate at its assessed value upon the general assessment 
of Duck Creek Hundred instead of upon the clear rental value as 
required by law." In Chapter 66, page 117, Vol. 18, Laws of Dela- 
ware, a similar provision is found. In Chapter 89, page 142, of the 
same volume, assessment of real estate for school tax purposes is, 
"according to a certain rate in and upon every hundred dollars of 
the estimated value of the property assessed." In Chapter 540, page 
651, Vol. 18, Laws of Delaware, the same provision is found. 

V. POSSIBLE EXPLANATION OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM'S 

FAILURE TO MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF 

FAIRNESS AND EQUITY. 

The present school tax system is old. It was established in times 
and under circumstances very different from the present. Different 
ideas of rights of persons under the established order prevailed. 
Though established long ago, it has not been modified or changed 
since its establishment. Necessarily and inevitably, therefore, it is 
out of tune and harmony with present ideas of rights of property, of 
citizens, and of equality before the law. Delaware was then a purely 
agricultural State consisting almost entirely of landed estates, and of 
tenants or renters. To the land-owning class of that day it seemed 
unfair that for these free schools, which were ordered to be established 
by law in 1829, they should be charged, or that they should pay 
taxes toward the support of these 'free schools,' since the children of 
the land-owners, a different class of society, were not going to attend 
these 'free public schools' (charity schools they were often called). 
The children of the land-owning class had always been sent to private 
schools, at the expense of the parents, so long as class distinctions in 
society were maintained. Therefore, it was an act of benevolence and 
of generosity for these land-owners to agree to the payment of any 
tax for the support of these ' free' or stigmatized schools, even if that 
tax were so little as a tax on the rental value of their farms. The 
present school tax system' was thus planned for a state of society 
which recognized social classes, and although the law merely makes 
the distinctions of kinds of property values, it was well known that 
property does not pay tax. Property owners must pay the taxes. 
Hence to tax different kinds of property on different ratios of 



values was a cunningly contrived avoidance of the principle funda- 
mental to the claims of our government, that there shall be special 
privileges to none and equality and fairness to all. 

VI. THE PROPOSED CHANGE. 

Merely for the sake of definiteness and of easy discovery if a 
definite statement of the proposal should be sought, it seems wise and 
desirable to include a simple and complete statement of just what the 
proposed change is. Many consequent changes will follow a change 
in the school tax system, but those consequent changes are not a 
necessary part of this presentation. It is proposed, THAT THE 
ASSESSMENTS OF PROPERTY FOR SCHOOL TAX PURPOSES 
BE UPON THE REAL VALUE OF ALL PROPERTY IN THE 
SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 

VII. EFFECTS OF THE PROPOSED CHANGE ON THE DIF- 
FERENT CLASSES OF PROPERTY, AND THEREFORE 
EFFECT UPON THE TAX PAYERS. 

Interested readers of this discussion will have asked themselves 
before this point has been reached, "How will the change affect the 
school taxes upon the several kinds of property values assessed?" 
An answer to this question is therefore due. 

To make sure of clear perception and distinction, it must con- 
tinually be borne in mind that no property pays taxes, but that only 
property owners pay taxes, and that a classification of property at 
different values for taxing purposes is in effect making a classification 
of property owners' for tax paying purposes. Also, it must not be 
forgotten that any one taxable may be paying taxes on one or two 
or on three of the kinds of values assessed for tax purposes. If this 
fact be carefully remembered, it will be easy to understand that the 
effect upon any one tax payer of any particular method of taxation, 
will depend on the kind or kinds of property values for which he is 
assessed, and also upon whether the full value or a part of the value 
of any form of property be assessed. 

A few concrete examples of how tax-payers will be affected by the 
change will make the results enlightening: EACH EXAMPLE IS 
SHOWN AS IF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT WERE RAISING THE 
SAME GROSS OR TOTAL AMOUNT OF SCHOOL TAX AS 
NOW. 

Person No. 22 in the specimen Assessment Lists will serve as an 
example of a tax-payer who pays on Capitation value only : 

Example I. 

As things are: 

Capitation Assessment, $200.00. 
School tax, at the $1.33 rate on $100.00. 
2.00 x $L33 equals $2.66. 



As things would be: 

Capitation Assessment, $200.00. 

School tax, at the $0.32 rate on the $100.00: 

2.00 X $0.32 equals $0.64. 

Change: $2.66 minus $0.64 equals $2.02, decrease. 

Example II, 

Person No. 16 is a person paying taxes on both I^'ersonal Property 
and on Capitation Assessment. 
As things are: 

Capitation Assessment, $200.00. 
Personal Property, $200.00. 

Total, $400.00 
School tax, at the $1.33 rate on $100.00: 
4.00 X $1.33 equals $5.32. 

As things would be: 

Capitation Assessment, $200.00. 
Personal Property Assessment, $200.00. 

Total, $400.00. 
School tax, at rate of $0.32 on the $100.00: 
4.00 X $0.32 equals $1.28, 
Change: $5.32 minus $1.28 equals $4.04, decrease. 

Example III: 

No. 4 will serve as an example of a person paying taxes on all 
three forms of property. 

As things are: 

Real Estate Assessment (rental value) $450.00 

Personal Property 520.00 

Capitation Value 200.00 

Total $1,170.00 

School tax, at the rate of $1.33 on the $100.00. 
11.70 X $1.33 equals $15.56. 

As things would be: 

Real Estate (real value) $4,500.00 

Personal Property 520.00 

Capitation Value 200.00 

Total $5,220.00 

School tax, at the $.032 rate on $100.00: 

52.20 x $0.32 equals $16.70. 

Change: $16.20 minus $15.56 equals $1.14, increase. 

9 



Example IV: 

No. 26 is a person who pays taxes on Real Estate and on Personal 
Property. 

As things are: 

Real Estate Assessment, (rental value) $425.00 

Personal Property 375.00 

Total $ 800.00 

School tax, at the rate of $1.33 on the $100.00: 
8.00 X $1.33 equals $10.64. 

As things would be: 

Real Estate, (real value) $3,650.00 

Personal Property 375.00 

$4,025.00 
School tax, at the $0.32 rate on $100.00: 
40.25 X $0.32 equals $12.88; 
Change: $12.88 minus $10.64 equals $2.24, increase. 

Example V : 

No. 9 is an example of a person who pays school taxes on Real 
Estate only. 

As things are: 

Real Estate Assessment (rental value) $400.00 

School tax, at the rate of $1.33 on the $100.00: 
4.00 x $1.33 equals $5.28. 

As things would he: 

Real Estate Assessment (real value) $4,300.00 

School tax, at the rate of $0.33 on the $100.00: 

43.00 x $0.32 equals $13.76; 

Change: $13.76 minus $5.28 equals $8.48, increase. 

It is to be noted that while three of the examples given show 
an increase of tax sums or amounts paid, it must be borne in mind 
that the district shown has an unusually large proportion of its tax- 
ables who are owners of real estate. If the State as a whole be con- 
sidered, there will be many persons who pay taxes only on Personal 
Property and on Capitation values (Examples No. 1 and No. 2). The 
big decrease will come to these two classes of property owners. The 
big increase will come to the 'persons who pay taxes on Real Estate 
only (example of No. 5). To the owners of Real Estate and one or 
more of the other values, the difference will not always be an increase, 
but may be a decrease, and will always be small either way; (examples 
No. Ill and No. IV). 

10 



If we think of NUMBERS, therefore, the change will be of advan- 
tage to very many persons, and a disadvantage to a very few, and to 
the very few it will cause no loss of actual necessities of life like bread, 
clothing or shelter. Of the present system that is certainly not true, 
for pitiful and depressing are the tales abroad of how the high taxes on 
horses and mules have required sacrifice and denial of actual necessi- 
ties to wives and children, not to mention the sacrifices of a chance to 
get an education suffered by some children. 

If it be true that school taxes on Personal Property and Capitation 
assessments will be less after the change, will not landlords therefore 
increase their rents, especially since the change has increased their 
taxes? This will become a very important phase of the discussion if 
it chances that the proposal makes any appeal to the citizenship of 
the State so that a wide-spread demand for the change becomes mani- 
fest. A year ago, during an effort to secure a favorable votle on some 
consolidation projects, threats of some landlords, made to tenants 
who had promised to vote for consolidation, turned the promised 
support into opposition of consolidation before the day of election. 
This experience clearly shows what tactics to expect. Some land- 
lords will help to bring the change about, and others will threaten 
their tenants with increase of rent to correspond with the landlords' 
increase of taxes. A word to these landlords may cause them to 
ponder the situation quite carefully. There is abroad the knowledge 
that good tenants are scarce. That labor on the farms is scarce. It 
is possible that the fact that tenants and laborers have been imposed 
upon in the school tax system, is one of the reasons why tenants 
will not stay on the farms and why laborers leave the farming com- 
munity. It is certain that to increase the burdens of tenants and 
laborers, is to still further increase the difficulty of keeping labor on 
and around the farms. For the tenants it is iniportant to know that 
increasing the tax on land values cannot increase rents. First, the tax 
increase will be State wide, so that all the land-owners of the State 
will be in search of tenants, and more earnestly in search for them than 
ever before. An idle, unproductive farm yields no income with which 
to pay tax, therefore farm-owners will be hunting up good tenants, 
and in order to get them will soon realize the necessity of offering 
better terms and lower rents rather than harder terms and higher 
rents. No truth of poHtical economy is more certain than that when 
supply is abundant the price falls. That is just as sure as that an 
apple falls to the ground when it breaks free from the tree. Similarly 
with rents, when farmers are hunting tenants, they will offer induce- 
ments to get them. HENCE, THE TENANT CLASS NEED NOT 
BECOME FRIGHTENED BY THREATS AND PREDICTIONS 
THAT WILL SURELY BE MADE. SUCH THREATS CANNOT 
BE CARRIED OUT. 



11 



VIII. POSSIBILITIES FOR THE SCHOOLS IF THE CHANGE 

BE MADE. 

It would be a serious fault in this presentation, however, if it 
urged the change of tax system only because of its greater fairness and 
equity, and because it will reduce the tax payments of some persons. 
Since a very large increase in the assessed values would result from 
including Real Estate values at their real value, and since large 
reductions in the taxes on Personal Property and Capitation values 
would be sure to follow, therefore it would be wise, desirable, and 
entirely feasible to appeal for an increase in the revenues for schools, 
so as to make some sadly needed betterments. If vv^e take the case of 
tax payers in the district represented in the assessment tables included 
in this discussion, it will be recalled that the tax rate could have been 
reduced from $1.33 on the $100.00 of valuation to $0.32 on the $100.00 
of valuation and yet raised the same amount of school tax. Any 
district that has been accustomed to a fairly high tax rate would feel 
ashamed to fix a rate as low as $0.32 on the $100.00. A reduction of 
three-fourths in the tax rate is not desired and would not be insisted 
upon Hence, it would be better to make the reduction in the tax rate 
only one-half instead of three-fourths. If we take the district used as 
an example, the new assessment of $48,990.00 at a rate of $0,665 on the 
$100.00 of value (which is one-half of the present tax rate) would yield, 
$325.78 instead of $154.00 as now, and yet all Personal Property and 
Capitation assessments would pay only half as much school tax as 
before. Think of what such a difference of revenue might be made to 
mean to the schools: better wages for teachers, thence better teachers; 
more equipment of all kinds, new maps, sufficient black-boards, school 
libraries and reference books, periodical literature for a reading table, 
instruction by moving pictures, etc. 

Therefore, the change can be made, the schools can be much 
bettered in every way at the same time that the taxes of many tax 
payers are diminished, and this without the loss of any necessities by 
the class of tax payers who would have to pay increased school taxes. 

IX. HOW THE CHANGE MAY BE EFFECTED. 

Any and every good citizen must favor the change, regardless of 
the effect it might have on his account personally. If all good citizens 
will unite their efforts in creating the necessary public sentiment and 
necessary desire for the change, it will come. Aggressive citizens 
should labor to secure the adoption of resolutions, the promotion of 
debates and discussions of the matter, the writing of personal letters 
to the newspapers and to the men in the legislature, and should secure 
the sending of delegations to the Committees of the legislature, asking 
for this legislation. The change must be made by the legislature. 
The leaders in the legislature will sanction the change and secure its 

12 



enactment into law after a bill has been drawn and presented, if the 
people want it and say so in unmistakable language. Heretofore 
the bills proposing the change have been defeated by the activity of 
the special class who get the benefit of the system as things are. Such 
defeat has been possible and is again possible, if the people do nothing 
and say nothing. It Avill be utterly impossible to defeat such legis- 
lation if the people say they want it. Therefore, the awakening of the 
people and citizens to what is involved in the issue, an awakening of 
a sense of justice and of their hopes and aspirations 'and desires for 
their children and for their State, offers the only hope of success, the 
only promise that this beginning of school betterment may be speedily 
inaugurated. 

The question raised is distinctly a question of equity and justice 
in the tax laws. This makes it a MORAL question, a question of fair 
treatment and of justice, of treatment according to the principle of 
securing the greatest good for the greatest number. 

Therefore, partisan political consideration cannot make it pri- 
marily a question of party. Citizens of every community, adherents 
of every party, are interested, but their interest is personal and social 
and not partisan. Every party that hopes for the suffrage of men who 
love justice and who will support measures of justice, will be ready to 
hold this an ethical question rather than a partisan question. Neither 
is it a race question. The schools of both races are operated under 
the same tax laws. Hence, considerations of race cannot divide 
people into supporters and opponents of the proposed change. The 
question of rural and urban sectional division cannot enter, for the 
system as it is applies to towns and to farms. Nor should the issue be 
permitted to become an issue of social rank or classes. As has been 
already pointed out, when instituted, the system was undoubtedly 
intended to favor a particular class of property owners, but the 
recognition of such distinctions in democratic society is now obsolete 
hence this attempt to reform the school tax system is an effort to 
remove and to wipe out the remains of a system founded upon such 
recognition. To cure a disease, the doctor must diagnose it, must 
find out what it is. That necessity rests upon any effort to make 
Delaware's school tax system conform with present day economic 
and governmental ethics. Were this necessity disregarded and were 
the fact of class distinctions in the present system smoothed over, no 
clear reason for what exists and no good reason for the change could 
have been made to appear. Hence, the issue is neither political, nor 
partisan, nor racial, nor based upon distinctions of social strata or 
classes. It is therefore indisputably a MORAL QUESTION, whether 
or not the State's school tax system shall be changed so as to embody 
present day ideas of fairness, of equality, or of regard for the 'common 
good.' As such a question, press, pulpit, granges. Century Clubs, 
Parent-Teacher Associations, Debating Societies, Institutes and 
every other forum for the enlightenment of the public and for the 

13 



creation of sentiment, should feel its obligation to help with the dis- 
cussion, with the expression and formulation of united and combined 
sentiment, and with the presentation of such resolution and senti- 
ment, to the columns of the newspapers, to legislators, to governing 
officials, to the Governor of the State. Citizens niay be inactive and 
may remain inactive, but if they are inactive, it is because they are 
shirking. No citizen of Delaware to-day has any moral right to 
accept the advantages secured for him by the generations gone before, 
and assume an attitude of indifference to the future. To accept and to 
enjoy what the past bestowed, imposes the binding obligation to 
behave toward the future as the past has behaved toward you: give 
the future something better than you got. 



14 



CHAS I.. STOKY, PRINT. 

WILMINGTON, DEL. 

I917 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



021 496 758 3 



